Web-based or similar software applications that provide for the use of multiple languages by users typically track user language selections using a stored language setting, which may be associated either with a web browser or a user account. Some applications require a user to make a language selection every time the application is requested. Some web applications may automatically select a language based on language indicators such as URL parameters, cookies, browser accept-language, user agent, domain, or IP address. However, these methods do not provide the user's desired language selections across separate applications and computing devices. For example, when an application has stored the user's language preferences in a file on the user's computer or associated the file with the user's web browser, the stored language preferences will not be retrievable if the user uses a different computer or a different program on the same computer in which they are stored. As another example, if a language setting is associated with a user account, applications that can provide content in the selected language may be limited to only those applications that can retrieve language preferences from the user's account, and they may not be able to do so unless the user is logged in to the account. Conventional techniques that automatically select a language based on default parameters, such as a user's IP address, may ignore a user's specific language preferences.